Vaping and Tobacco

Lesson Plans

NEW! Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: You and Me, Together Vape-Free

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes each of the 6 lessons includes a lesson plan overview, Canva slides, talking points (a script), a Kahoot quiz, discussion guide for students to use with a trusted adult, and crash courses for educators
  • Teaches about the harms of e-cigarettes, the strategies e-cigarette manufacturers and sellers use to increase use among adolescents (such as deceptive and creative marketing strategies), and skills to refuse experimentation and use of e-cigarettes
  • Duration: 6 lessons
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards, Health Education Content Standards, National Health Education Standards
  • Sources: Stanford Medicine

NEW! Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: Smokeless Tobacco 101

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes PowerPoint slide deck, factsheet, activities, online quiz games, worksheets, discussion guide for students to use with a trusted adult, and crash courses for educators
  • Teaches the risks and history of smokeless tobacco use and refusal skills
  • Duration: 1 lesson
    • Includes 7 activities/mini-lessons organized by topic and placed in a recommended sequence, with a final unit Kahoot quiz. Project Here estimates 1-3 class sessions.
  • Sources: Stanford Medicine

NEW! Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: Hookah 101

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes PowerPoint slide deck, factsheet, activities, online quiz games, worksheets, discussion guide for students to use with a trusted adult, and crash courses for educators
  • Teaches the risks and parts of a waterpipe (hookah) and refusal skills
  • Duration: 1 lesson
    • Includes 5 activities/mini-lessons organized by topic and placed in a recommended sequence, with a final unit Kahoot quiz. Project Here estimates 1-2 class sessions.
  • Sources: Stanford Medicine

NEW! How Nicotine Affects the Teen Brain

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes teaching guide, student article, student activity sheet, vocabulary list, and optional interactive exercise
  • Teaches about nicotine, its addictive properties, and the dangers of vaping, including by having students create a presentation for their peers
  • Duration: 1 class period
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards
  • Sources: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) & Scholastic

NEW! Teacher’s Guide to the Risks of Vaping Student Magazine

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes teacher’s guide (lesson plan), magazine “The Risks of Vaping,” Vaping 101 Articles, Vaping’s Not Our Thing project and project rubric
  • Teaches about the risks of vaping by having students analyze informational texts to gather evidence and then create a persuasive anti-vaping infographic/poster for a teen audience
  • Duration: 60 min
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards ELA, Next Generation Science Standards, National Health Education Standards
  • Sources: FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: The materials in this lesson were previously part of Scholastic and the FDA’s “The Real Cost of Vaping” program (previously included in this Toolkit). The program was moved to the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library and reworked into several separate lessons.

*Note: You will need to create a free account in the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library to access resources.

NEW! Teens and Vaping: The Real Health Consequences

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes lesson plan, Vaping 101 Articles, and Get the Facts About Vaping Activity
  • Teaches about the health impacts associated with using e-cigarettes
  • Duration: 50 min
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards ELA and Next Generation Science Standards
  • Sources: FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: The materials in this lesson were previously part of Scholastic and the FDA’s “The Real Cost of Vaping” program (previously included in this Toolkit). The program was moved to the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library and reworked into several separate lessons.

*Note: You will need to create a free account in the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library to access resources.

NEW! Vaping Research Project

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes lesson plan, Vaping 101 Articles, and Plan an E-Cigarette Survey Activity
  • Teaches students about the health consequences of e-cigarette use through a project where they design and conduct a survey at school
  • Duration: 40 min
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards Math & ELA, Computer Science, and Next Generation Science Standards
  • Sources: FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: The materials in this lesson were previously part of Scholastic and the FDA’s “The Real Cost of Vaping” program (previously included in this Toolkit). The program was moved to the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library and reworked into several separate lessons.

*Note: You will need to create a free account in the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library to access resources.

NEW! Sizing Up E-Cigarette Marketing

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes lesson plan, Vaping 101 Articles, Decode the Marketing Message Activities 1 & 2
  • Teaches how to uncover the misleading ways e-cigarettes are marketed to teens
  • Duration: 45 min
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards ELA and Computer Science
  • Sources: FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: The materials in this lesson were previously part of Scholastic and the FDA’s “The Real Cost of Vaping” program (previously included in this Toolkit). The program was moved to the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library and reworked into several separate lessons.

*Note: You will need to create a free account in the FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library to access resources.

Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: Nicotine Addiction

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes educator crash courses, PowerPoint with speakers notes, factsheets, and more
  • Teaches students about the adolescent brain, addiction, and nicotine
  • Duration: 3 class periods
  • Source(s): Stanford Medicine

CATCH My Breath

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes 4 classroom lessons, virtual field trips, supplemental materials, free and paid teacher trainings, student self-paced modules, and paid video lessons
  • Lessons teach the consequences of e-cigarette use, refusal skills and smart exit strategies, the role of advertising in e-cigarette use, and goal setting regarding e-cigarette use
  • Duration: 4 35-min lessons
  • Sample Lesson
  • Sources: CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health

Note: The free curriculum is available to all U.S. schools. Click to register. Paid add-ons are also available.

E-Cigarettes: Is it Worth it?

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes educator/nurse instructional guide with instructions for 3 activities, 3 activity sheets for students, classroom poster, student toolkit, and parent/guardian letter
  • Teaches the health risks of e-cigarette use and other tobacco product by looking at expert perspectives on tobacco use, advertising, and research
  • Duration: 1-3 class periods
  • Standard aligned with: National Health Education Standards, National Standards for Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, Common Core State Standards English Language Arts, History/Social Sciences, & Science
  • Source(s): Young Minds Inspired, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, CVS Health

*Also available in Spanish

Taking Down Tobacco

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes teaching kit/lesson plan with instructions for 3 activities and follow-up, 3 activity sheets for students, classroom poster, 2 videos, parent/guardian letter, and student research resources
  • Teaches about the risks of tobacco use and exposure to nicotine by reflecting on their personal experience with tobacco use, creating a PSA, and creating a poster about the impact of tobacco advertising
  • Duration: 1-3 class periods
  • Standards aligned with: National Health Education Standards, National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences, Common Core State Standards English Language Arts, History/Social Sciences, & Science
  • Source: Young Minds Inspired, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, CVS Health

*Also available in Spanish

E-Cigarettes: What You Need to Know

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes lesson plan with student article, worksheet, critical thinking questions, vocabulary lists, and writing prompts
  • Duration: 1 class period
  • Teaches about the potential risks of electronic cigarettes; how e-cigarette marketing strategies are designed and how they might influence teens; and, critical thinking
  • Standards aligned with: Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, National Science Education Standards, and National Council for Social Studies
  • Source(s): National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) & Scholastic

Know the Risks: A Youth Guide to E-cigarettes

  • Grades 6-8
  • Includes a PowerPoint presentation and teacher talking points
  • Duration: 45 min
  • Educates youth on e-cigarettes, including health risks, the factors that lead to e-cigarette use, and what youth can do to avoid all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes
  • Source: CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH)

Student Self-Paced Lessons

Vaping: Know the Truth

  • Grade level: 8
  • Duration: 4 5-10 min lessons (total duration 30-40 min)
  • Includes 4 self-led digital lessons with pre-and post-assessments and real-time score reporting
  • Teaches students about the dangers of e-cigarette use and connects students who are currently using e-cigarettes to Truth Initiative’s text message quit vaping program, This is Quitting
  • Standards: National Health Education Standards
  • Source: EVERFI and Truth Initiative in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente and the American Heart Association

Note: Educators must create a free EVERFI Teacher account to get started and then invite students to their class using a unique registration code. This resource is free to use.

Additional Resources

NEW! Mind Matters: The Body’s Response to Nicotine, Tobacco and Vaping

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes a student booklet and a Teacher’s Guide with suggested classroom activities
  • Student booklet is available online (with video) or for download
  • Explains what nicotine is, the health effects of nicotine, and what vaping devices are and how they work
  • Sources(s): National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

*Also available in Spanish

NEW! Tobacco Prevention Toolkit: Factsheets

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes multiple factsheets on e-cigarettes and vape pens, hookah and smokeless tobacco, and tobacco basics,
  • Sources(s): Stanford Medicine

NEW! Fact: Vaping Harms Your Health (Infographic)

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes infographics for student “Fact: Vaping Harms Your Health”
  • Sources(s): FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: See below for 2 FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library infographics for parents/caregivers.

Resources for Parents & Caregivers

NEW! FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library Infographics for Parents & Caregivers

  • Grade level: 6-8
  • Includes 2 infographics for parents/caregivers: “Vaping Facts and Misperceptions” and “How to Talk to Kids About Vaping Risks”
  • Sources(s): FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library

*Note: See above for an FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library infographics for students.

Vaping Fact Sheet

  • Includes link to order vaping fact sheets
  • Includes information that can be used throughout the community to inform parents about the dangers of vaping, data on youth e-cigarette use and the role of tobacco industry tactics
  • Source(s): Massachusetts Health Promotion Clearinghouse

E-Cigarettes Shaped Like USB Flash Drives: Information for Parents, Educators, and Health Care Providers

  • Includes infographic that gives an overview of E-cigarettes
  • Provides brief description of the effects of e-cigarettes on the developing brain, and Helpful next steps for educators, parents, and health care providers about how to reduce the use of e-cigarettes among young people
  • Source(s): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Teachers and Parents: That USB Stick Might Be an E-Cigarette (Poster)

  • Includes infographic with overview of e-cigarettes
  • Focuses on summarizing e-cigarettes and their risks
  • Source(s): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)